China investigates 38,754 for malfeasance, right infringement in nearly 5 years

BEIJING, Oct. 28 -- Chinese procuratorates have investigated 38,754 government and judicial workers for malfeasance and infringement on people's rights from 2005 to June this year, top procurator Cao Jianming told the country's top legislature Wednesday.

They included five officials at the province or ministry level and 47 at the prefectural level, said Cao, Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) in a report delivered at the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Procuratorates at all levels prosecuted 23,308 people involved in such cases and retrieved economic losses of 19.74 billion yuan (2.89 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, he said.

Procuratorates had strengthened supervision on cases involving government or judicial personnel who took advantage of their positions to infringe upon people's rights or offer "protective umbrella" for mafia-like groups, he said.

During the period, 7,857 people in judicial departments were investigated for dereliction of duty, and 2,297 government and judicial workers were investigated for misusing their powers for illegal detainment, revenge or sabotage of elections, the SPP's figures showed.

A total of 1,586 people were punished for illegal search, extorting confessions by torture, forcible evidence-collecting activities, or abusing detainees, according to Cao.

The SPP, together with the Ministry of Public Security, launched a five-month campaign last April to ensure proper management of detention centers following the death of a man in a detention center in southwestern Yunnan Province in February, he said.

Li Qiaoming, 24, was beaten to death by three fellow inmates on Feb. 8, but the detention center at first claimed that he died of playing a game of "hide-and-seek."

The campaign focused on cracking down on "inmate bullying" and investigating all "unnatural" deaths since 2006 and how officials handled them.